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Gah, my flights keep getting cancelled and nothing's really going out there anymore, so I'll be sitting this one out after all, unfortunately. Hopefully Steve will still be able to ask them as he's already there, or the show will provide us the answers to many of these.

Sorry to hear it, not surprising though, I was only just able to get info to Steve in time for him to get a new flight in. Steve won't be able to do the interview for sure, he'll have his hands full with photography, so I guess this thread will have to wait until SDCC unless a miracle happens and Hasbro shows up at Wondercon.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

1. The 2012 Naboo Fighter looks like a great piece, unfortunately retailers generally didn't get around to ordering it, so it is extremely rare unless one spends around $100 or more on its case. Is there any chance of seeing that Naboo Fighter re-released, if not mainline then as an exclusive?

My rewrite: Speaking of vehicle re-releases, the Naboo Fighter is a great one that many collectors missed due to the first wave of vehicles not selling well last year and the case being expensive and rare online. Might we see it pop up at discount stores or in closeout packs similar to what happened with the Mandalorian Shuttle recently at Toys R Us? It's too large for the new Class II line, but could it be repacked as an exclusive?

No news on this one, though it’s obvious it won’t be released in the mainline due to the size/detail change on Class II this year. JediTempleArchives has inconsistent information on this, but it only ranges from “no” to “wait and see,” so I think it’s worth keeping. I really do think the part about coming in the TRU-style two-packs is important, since it’s possible that these were created but just not shipped enough.

2. Four Movie Heroes figures have been revealed at conventions and released internationally - light-up lightsaber Anakin, rappel-line jetpack Boba, tan exploding Battle Droid, and light-up blaster Sandtrooper - but none have been released in the US. The Sandtrooper and a maroon repaint of the Battle Droid were revealed at Celebration as coming in 2013, but what about the tan droid and the other two figures?

There was no official word on this, but GalacticHunter (and other sites) reports that both the Movie Heroes and The Clone Wars figures that were to be shipped on the Yoda cards are only going to Europe since the sell-through on these is much higher there, meaning we won't see ANY of these figures in the US. Maybe we could ask about an exclusive release or a gift set or something.

3. The new Class 2 Fleet vehicles use all new tooling, but what happens to the original Starfighter class toys, is new development there over entirely, what about reissues from the decades-old library of tooling built up there?

They are still drawing from the library, and there is still work being done – at least in deco – on the more collector-friendly ships for exclusives, as seen in the X-wing, TIE Interceptor, Republic Gunship, and Slave I repaints (which may or may not have some tooling changes, though it looks like they’re the same). They’re opting for the smaller, cheaper ships in the Class II line for now, so is there anything left in this question? Are you focusing solely on the starfighter assortment, meaning none of those exclusive vehicles fit that bill?

4. The Endor AT-AT has been released internationally, but what is its status in the US? Why was it moved from its announced October date - did TRU already have enough big items between the Millennium Falcon, MTT, and older-yet-still-available big vehicles?

JTA says that the Endor AT-AT is currently scheduled for a Spring 2013 release. We can follow up at Comic-Con if that doesn’t come to pass.

5. Mainline figures are now retailing for $10 each, not just collector-focused Vintage Collection, but Movie Heroes and Clone Wars too. Can the brand continue to appeal to kids and casual consumers at that price without a value-compensator like the Droid Factory parts that ended up being too expensive?

As we’ve seen, those kid-targeted lines are going away and being replaced by the $6 Saga Legends line. The collector-targeted line is staying at $10, which it seems Hasbro is fine with.

6. The presumably-still-upcoming Mara Jade figure is wearing the same catsuit that has been made as a figure twice previously - and it looks like a fine figure in and of itself - but the Fans' Choice poll had an image of her wearing her green Jedi outfit, so that look is probably what many fans believed they were picking when they voted. Why was the choice made to make yet another version of this outfit as opposed to the one featured in the poll?

Still a valid question, and the catsuit figure is definitely still coming in TBS.

7. How does the main line expect to hold retailer peg space without an ongoing line for the next 8 months?

As I’ve said, they’ve done this before (2008, 2010, technically 2012 in a lot of places), so I don’t know how their answers would be different. Still, by the time we’d be able to ask them anything, it would be getting close to the time when product starts showing up on shelves again. It seems like they expect the reshipped TVC figures to hold at least some amount of interest and peg space until then. I do wonder what will happen to the Movie Heroes and Clone Wars pegs now that those lines are done.

8. Disney has said they are going to do new films that take place after ROTJ, during the same time as pre-existing Expanded Universe material, so assuming that post-ROTJ EU material isn't used in the new films, would those new films lower the likelihood of seeing existing post-ROTJ EU figures?

Still valid, though it's not like we're getting much EU anyway.

9. How long before the official word did you know that Build A Droid 2013 was going to be canceled, both officially and in your gut? What point in the process did it seem like things were going against it? Was there a single event that precipitated the line's cancellation?

Still valid.

10. Are we going to see any kind of recognition of the 30th anniversary of ROTJ in 2013? It seems like Hasbro put out a lot of ROTJ product in 2012 that might leave the cupboard bare for this year's 30th; has there been any Hasbro discussion about the film's anniversary or was it sort of forgotten?

There’s nothing major – the only ROTJ items revealed were the TIE Interceptor and the Ewok Catapult set, and there's nothing planned (though presumably there could still be other ROTJ items coming later in the year). We could still ask why this is the case, especially when ANH got the 30th Anniversary Collection and ESB got the first wave of TVC and a ton of vehicles.

11. Some collectors are worried that the new 6" line will cannibalize resources that otherwise would have gone into making high-quality, super-articulated 3.75" figures. Is that going to be the case, or will collectors who have invested almost 18 years into collecting the 3.75" line and are NOT interested in starting again with a newly scaled line still have something to look forward to?

They’ll still be releasing the collector-focused 3.75” line under The Black Series, so they’re not abandoning that segment, but the rest of the question is still valid.

12. How long before the public announcement did you know that the 3D re-releases of Episodes II and III weren't going to happen this year? Did that cause you to have to change the line much, or were you already planning on scaling back after Episode I didn't do as well as you hoped?

It’s clear that most of the 2013 product is still geared around AOTC and ROTS this year, so I doubt they changed the lineup much. Still, the question of when they found out and how much that affected them is valid.

13. Why is the eye on the top back of astromech heads almost always being done wrong by Hasbro as it is on the 6" R2 figure, so it sticks straight up instead of angled back?

Maybe a waste of a question, but maybe we could ask (in an unofficial capacity) why they keep making the red Battle Droids, but the tan ones seem so few and far between. Pretty odd, since the tan ones are more common. Also, why it's so hard to slap minor paint details and make the various classes.

Maybe a waste of a question, but maybe we could ask (in an unofficial capacity) why they keep making the red Battle Droids, but the tan ones seem so few and far between. Pretty odd, since the tan ones are more common.

Huh? Tan battle droids were everywhere in 2012. There was one in TVC, one in Movie Heroes (along with a red one, true), and there were 20 of them in the MTT. There's one of either color out right now in the Class I sets, and there will be one of each color in the Mission Series this Fall. So I wouldn't say the tan ones are exactly uncommon these days.

In any case, I found Qui-Gon for three bucks today, and he needs some stooges to throw down on!

Toys R Us has all their Star Wars figures for 50% off currently (not sure how long that lasts), and the Battle Droids are in stock online. Just sayin' - these buggers might be tough to justify for some folks at $10, but at $5, they rock.